At several points throughout season 7, Alex appeared in place of Spencer (both played by Troian Bellisario). The crazy twin came to Rosewood after meeting Wren at a pub in London, where she worked as a bartender. Alex learns all about Spencer’s seemingly perfect life across the pond, and decides she wants to steal it.

Alex plots to kidnap Spencer at Aria and Ezra’s wedding in Rosewood, but things go awry when Jenna figures out that something is fishy. Jenna tells Toby, who tells the PLL gang, and they end up calling the police. But the series concludes with Mona holding Alex and her mom Mary Drake hostage in an underground lair below a doll shop in France.

Bellisario told Elle that it’s been “real rough” keeping the ending secret from her castmates. “I was first told in the beginning of season five,” she told Elle. “[Creator] Marlene [King] took me aside and told me, ‘I have an idea, but I don’t know if the network will let me do it…’ Then she sat me down and explained this whole ending to me. She said, ‘You cannot tell anybody. It might not even happen.’ So I sat on it for over a year. Then at the end of season six, she said, ‘We’re going to do it.’ It was like the starting gun at the races.”

The actress added that she would joke that she was A.D. to throw people off. “But for a long time, people would ask, ‘Who’s A.D.?’ And I’d say, ‘It’s me!’ And everyone would just laugh,” she recalled. “It’s kind of great when you have a secret that so few people — only me, Marlene, and a handful of others at that point — know. It means you can hide in plain sight.”

Fans had mixed reactions about the conclusion of the Freeform series. “7 years of my life dedicated to #pll and all you give me is a twin with a bad accent,” one user tweeted. Another wrote: “It feels so good to know it all, no more A, no more mysteries! #PLLFinale.”